T-Shirt Tuesday: The Best X-Files Shirts

This site may earn affiliate commissions from the links on this page. Terms of use.

Back in the days of geek prehistory, a T-shirt was a signal to the world around you that you cared about your nerdy pursuits enough to fly them like a flag. Companies like Graphitti Designs contracted with movie studios and comics publishers to create shirts with our favorite characters and sold them up on the walls of comic book stores and through mail-order.

The computer revolution has enabled the T-shirt world to become something totally new – affordable production and distribution means that shirts can be printed in small quantities and sold anywhere in the world. Starting with Threadless, dozens of companies popped up letting artists and designers show their stuff. It’s a better time than ever to be a geek fashionista, and if you’re looking to expand your wardrobe we’re going to help you out every week… on T-Shirt Tuesday.

This week: The X-Files is back on Fox so don some duds featuring your favorite FBI agents and their bizarre world.

Mulder & Scully

There have been plenty of “odd couple” pairings on TV, going back to at least The Odd Couple, but few worked with the chemistry of Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. Pairing a believer in every bizarre theory that comes along with a no-nonsense medical professional led to plenty of friction and when they eventually got together romantically it was electric. This elegant design by Thirrin has a 80s look to it while also seeming very modern.

Where Are You, Fox?

Dana Scully’s red hair has inspired a bunch of artists, but this illustration by dracoimagem is a cut above. Using a limited palette of just a few colors, they capture her character with incredible efficiency. This is a striking and unique shirt that really declares your status as an X-Files fan.

Apollo 11

The keychain that Mulder gives Scully for her birthday is one of the series low-key totemic objects, a commemoration of the Apollo 11 moon landing that also served as a symbolic passing of the torch in Season 8 away from the two originals to Doggett and Reyes. Obviously that didn’t work out, but this recreation by liinamalviina is the kind of fandom deep cut we crave here at Geek HQ.

Episodes

I love ridiculously detailed shirts like this that boil a geek franchise down into dozens of tiny icons. They’re like a standardized test for our brain – that’s the brand of cigarettes the Smoking Man puffs! That’s the drugged pizza from the pizza vampire episode! Artist sixhours gives us plenty to puzzle on in this cool shirt. Can you identify all 48 things before time runs out?

Uncanny X-Files

John Byrne’s cover for X-Men #141 is one of the most homaged in comic book history – the iconic “Days of Future Past” storyline, with Wolverine and Kitty Pryde standing in front of a wall plastered with posters of dead and captured mutants. This design by soletine transplants Mulder and Scully into the scene and adds in a bunch of the series’ supporting cast for some cool Easter eggs.

X-Shadows

Optical illusions are very cool, and this shirt looks just like the normal X logo until you look a little closer. Artist DREWWISE has hidden the silhouettes of Mulder and Scully to each side of the X, creating a very compelling shirt that is subtle and effective.

Monster Alphabet

Sure, we love the overarching mythos of the X-Files with the aliens and conspiracies and whatnot, but in retrospect many of the most memorable episodes were the “monster of the week” ones where Mulder and Scully traveled the country digging up freaks, creeps and unexplained terrors. This clever shirt by comfhaus gives us an A-Z assortment of some of the best.

The Lone Gunmen

If you’re a true X-Files stan, you’ll remember when supporting characters the Lone Gunmen had their own short-lived show. Langly, Frohike and Byers were the trio of computer nerds who delved deep into conspiracy lore, sometimes putting their own lives on the line. All three were killed off in the ninth season, but designer traceygurney pays tribute to their sacrifice with this cool propaganda poster-esque shirt.

The Truth Is Out There

We dig the over-embellished visual style that TaylorRoseMakesArt brings to this design, which puts Mulder and Scully in the middle of a dense forest looking for clues as all sorts of monsters and terrors lurk around them. It’s unpolished in a fascinating way that the best fan art delivers, and there’s plenty of detail for your eye to get lost in

Ex-File

Our government loves secrets, and this clever design by monsieurgordon takes a unique approach to the topic, piecing together a document that’s been shredded and heavily redacted to make the X-Files logo. The almost photo-realistic approach to the illustration makes this a one-of-a-kind design that’s unlike anything else we’ve featured here and definitely a keeper for hardcore fans.

I Want To Believe

One of the most iconic images of the entire X-Files is the poster Fox Mulder has hanging in his FBI basement office, a blurry lone UFO hovering over an unidentified forest with the words “I Want To Believe” printed below. Artist dennisthemantis perfectly replicates the design for a T-shirt so you can carry your fandom wherever you go. The truth is definitely out there.